Related Quotes

Company Profile

Job ads drop again

The latest ANZ job advertisement series suggesting the job market weakened further in April.

The number of job advertisements online and in the press fell by 1.3 per cent in April after falling 0.5 per cent in March.

In trend terms, job advertising is 17 per cent lower than a year earlier.

ANZ chief economist Ivan Colhoun said the outlook for the economy and labour market suggested the Reserve Bank of Australia was likely to cut rates when it meets on Tuesday.

“The trend for job advertising is consistent with a further rise in unemployment, a trend which is expected to see the RBA enact further reductions in interest rates over the next six months," he said.

The RBA board will not have to hand the latest official labour market data, which comes out on Thursday. The last release showed unemployment rose 0.2 per cent to 5.6 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms as the economy shed 36,000 jobs.

“ANZ expects the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6% in April, confirming the moderate trend increase revealed in the March data," Mr Colhoun said.

Benign inflation in April: TD Securities

The TD Securities Melbourne Institute inflation gauge, a private indicator of inflation, showed prices rose 0.3 per cent in April, and 2.1 per cent over the last 12 months.

Vegetables, health and communication became more expensive, while petrol fell by a whopping 6.4 per cent in the month.

“Our TD-MI Monthly Inflation Gauge correctly signalled that March quarter headline and trimmed mean inflation were benign," said TS Securities head of Asia-Pacific research Annette Beacher.

“The first taste of the June quarter inflation continues this benign theme, with both headline and underlying measures at or below the bottom of the RBA’s two to three per cent target band."

She predicted the board would leave rates on hold and continue to assess.

The RBA has previously indicated a bias towards cutting the official interest rate, which stand at 3 per cent.

The central bank is committed to keeping inflation between 2 and 3 per cent over the business cycle.

Using monetary policy to target inflation is widely believed to be the best way to guarantee macroeconomic stability.

On Monday morning, interest rate markets were predicting a 51 per cent chance of a rate cut on Tuesday.